Talk:Ertl Company
Split page immediately This page should be split into separate pages for each of the Ertl Company's ranges, while this page should remain as a small page about the company itself and a list of its Thomas ranges. They are: *The Ertl Collection *Pull Back and Go! *Wind-ups *Gold Rail Series *Mini World This is exactly what Bandai, Tomy, Fisher-Price, Learning Curve, and other company pages do, so this should happen to the Ertl Company page immediately. The Ertl Collection refers to the well known primary die-cast range. It was not distinguished under a name until the most recent packaging change in 2002, where you can see "The Ertl Collection" written in the corner of the boxes, where "The" and "Collection" are written in the same font as the Thomas logo. You should be able to find this by Googling. It is inconvenient having multiple ranges of different styles being covered on the same page, and this website should especially not be making errors in what are the names of the ranges. Jdogman (talk) 13:40, September 3, 2017 (UTC) Possible alternatives :It is a very large article that I think should have an alternative structure, but I disagree that each range should have its own page. My recommendation would be splitting the 1/64 Scale range from everything else, only, and as an exception. There is not enough content for other ranges to avoid inconsistency between new pages and the creation of stubs, which has happened with some of the other merchandise producers previously mentioned (and should be merged back again). Ideally, this would be a great opportunity to utilise the tab function of the wikia, and have suitable pages as a sub-page of the Ertl Company page, much like the current Gallery tab. :As for the name of the main range, there isn't an 'error', as such. But I would like to know what the majority of the fanbase or model collectors use to distinguish it from other collections of ERTL merchandise. Ertl man (talk) 02:50, September 5, 2017 (UTC) ::Before anything is done, I think we should wait until the new admins are promoted. Wellsworth96 (talk) 03:08, September 5, 2017 (UTC) _________________________________________________________________________________ No Need To Split ::i personally feel the pages shouldn't be split personally, and maybe have the page just named ERTL as that is what most call it anyway. ::i see why you'd want it split but the only dubious thing that should be split is the "Gold Rail" section which should really just be a link to the Bandai page to find out about it considering it was primarily a Bandai product, other than this ERTL didn't have too many different ranges so would not make much sense to split it all off ::only thing i would say is stop calling it the "1/64 scale" standard when there is no size standard, they go from N to OO to O-9, so it should just be called the "Standard" Range as it was what was standard until Take-Along came around, then you have the pull backs, wind-ups, Larger Scales, and so forth. :::I don't believe you need to start a new subheading if you want to add a message related to the talk page discussion but anyway. :::While it does mean that some articles will have little content in them, we shouldn't worry too much about stub pages as there are plenty around on this wikia and many others that have been unavoidable to make, and usually there's nothing else to say that would make them un-stubworthy. On a slightly different topic, some of the Fisher-Price preschool toy pages could be merged as they are collectively under the "My First" label. We already have pages for other companies changed into pages showing what toy range they made so I don't see why this page should be an exception. It seems you're both suggesting that those company pages should house multiple items. :::Back on topic, I believe many people think of "The Ertl Collection" as just being Ertl's main Thomas range and so call it the Ertl range (or ERTL). Other ranges like the Gold Rail or Mini World would be specified by their range title since they're often small and their name was distinguished. I understand that and I did the same thing since the advertising and boxes of the range for a very long time did not indicate a name. It wasn't long ago when I saw some 2002-4 boxes where the familiar Flange BQ Bold font was around the Ertl logo, signifying it to me that Ertl's main Thomas range was known as "The Ertl Collection". :::I renamed this page's title from ERTL to Ertl Company as I noticed that it was formerly called that. I was trying to seperate the products on that page so I called the The Ertl Collection products "Die-cast" so that it would be clear and so it had something to be distinguished by with a title like the smaller ranges. Otherwise editors would write nothing and assume that nothing would mean the The Ertl Collection die-cast range. I initially couldn't turn this page into a page like how Bandai is written because I had no name to find for the die-cast range. :::Flyingtardis, renaming the page back to "ERTL" simply because most most people call it that is not a valid reason and will just encourage more fan-made stuff making the correct information lesser known. That is what I'm doing over on the CGI Series talk page trying to get the Classic, New, and CGI Series pages deleted. As you also said, having seperate pages for Gold Rail and Engine Collection Series since there still are differences being that both ranges have differences on their vehicles and a different release of sets. There are other examples of similar looking toy ranges with individual pages because of notable reasons such as Collectible Railway and Adventures, Take Along and Take-n-Play, Motor Road and Rail and TrackMaster. :::By the way, I would try and do this already, and I have in the past but my edits got reverted, while the pages I made became redirects to this page. So I'm not doing it again to prevent an editing war, plus it would clog up the wikia activity page and give loads of badges due to moving hundreds of images. Jdogman (talk) 14:57, September 6, 2017 (UTC) ::::Ah, it was you who made it "Ertl Company". Why did you wait so long from renaming this page to proposing to split the ranges up to their own separate pages? Just curious. Also, have you got any other reasoning for the "Ertl Collection" name to be applied retrospectively? I'd like to know your thoughts and to see if you can persuade me to agree. Ertl man (talk) 10:44, September 8, 2017 (UTC) :::::I didn't know what the name of the The Ertl Collection was called so I couldn't think of a reason to split Ertl Company when I didn't know what the page for the The Ertl Collection should be titled, like I said earlier. All I did was go through the page and label everything relevant as "Die-cast range" or "die-cast", but at some point it all got removed by someone and it would take a while to try and put everything back. I only noticed the range's name late last year. :::::I understand that not everything would need its own page since there were a lot of one off special items. Items such as the Motorized Thomas and Percy, Remote Control Thomas, Radio Control Thomas, Melody and Motion Thomas, and Wind Up Sir Topham Hatt would be listed alongside links to the bigger Ertl Company ranges, and their images present in the gallery section. This would be like HiT Toy Company, since they produced one big range, TrackMaster, but had a variety of preschool toys which didn't really have any name or special branding that specified their range. :::::I'll go back to your earlier point about a tab system which I think could work for convenience, but a variety of pages should be using that system if they have linked connections such as Fisher-Price's ranges, Learning Curve's ranges, and even the TV seasons. :::::I feel like I have exhausted my main points for why I think this split should go ahead and why its called "The Ertl Collection". We have pages already doing this example and it's proven that it works. It's much more attractive to have a name for the range rather than this informal "1/64 Scale Die-cast range". It would be like called the other ranges "Plastic railway system". I'm more interested in why you are still opposed to this, because I could form some more points out of it. Jdogman (talk) 00:24, September 10, 2017 (UTC) :::::: Ideally, we want a name that encompasses the whole range, covering all releases from 1984 to 2004. I don't feel that the name "The ERTL Collection" applies retrospectively. When the range changed to adopt that name in 2002 it became its own subset of the range. Firstly, It was released exclusively in the UK, becoming unavailable to fans internationally and probably why you didn't know that name until recently; the return of the Collectors Card on the packaging significantly changed the Card Number of the models, which conflicted with existing numbers, with the 2002 models receiving numbers already allocated to existing models instead of continuing the trend (unlike the parallel Shining Time Station releases between 1993 and 1996, which have only minor discrepancies due to exclusive releases); the models changed to the U-hook coupling which makes them physically different and changes compatibility from the models released prior to 2002; and the name "The ERTL Collection" may not be exclusive to the Thomas line of merchandise, and isn't used anywhere else to distinguish the range, that I know of. :::::: "1/64 Scale Die-cast range" is not a great name for the range, granted, but it is an accurate description. When the range started in 1984, they were 'replicas', and tried to be faithful not only to the onscreen characters but to real-world locomotives as well. The 1990 ERTL toy catalog for retailers actually states that the Thomas model is 1/64 scale, and the pullback range is 1/32 scale. The 1989 ERTL toy catalog for retailers, refers to the 1/64 as 'small-scale' but is consistent as it also says the motorised Thomas is twice the size of the 'small-scale' models. The use of 1/64 scale is also consistent within the community, with some retailers still using it and the odd ebay listing also citing the scale. The scale accuracy of the models did fall apart in 1995 and 1996, when engines from the mountain and narrow gauge were produced, but kept to the current size for compatibility with existing models, and to be included within the range. :::::: If the "1/64 scale" description is what everyone knows the range by, without an official title, that's what we should use. I'd be happy to compromise on another name, with an admin's contribution to the discussion (perhaps 'Small Scale Die Cast' like the 1989 catalog?). The only thing I oppose is attractive, incorrect information, which I feel would happen if "The ERTL Collection" was to be applied to the range prior to 2002. Ertl man (talk) 02:40, September 27, 2017 (UTC) :::::::I am sorry to reply to this so late, but when the only way of finding new responses is to keep checking back here, after a while it becomes easy to no longer check. :::::::I think you presented some good points. Understandably, when there was only a small assortment of products made in a few different sizes and variations, I can see that 1/64 scale would have been just a way to describe what it is like the Pullback or one off Thomas toys would have been described, and I can understand how the trend continued. I've seen listings of other products on late 80s packaging described as "Die-cast" too, when Ertl had to specify a difference. I can also understand how differently "The Ertl Collection" would have meant to the UK after its international discontinuation such as the U-hook system. I believe the name, "The Ertl Collection" was only used for the Thomas products because of the Flange BQ Thomas font used in its logo, and when I searched it, only listings for those Thomas products came up. :::::::Regardless of how the Die-cast/1/64 Scale/The Ertl Collection page is written and titled, it should not be stopping the other Ertl ranges like Mini World and Gold Rail Series from getting their own pages since they do have known names. Jdogman (talk) 07:57, November 14, 2017 (UTC) Gold Rail List Format Please avoid editing the formatting of the Gold Rail list. The list is intentionally dot points for consistency throughout the page. The models are also numbered for their collector card, but there is not a consistent count so this is NOT a numbered list. The code required is "* #", asterisk SPACE hash. Leave the code in-line with the space and do not move the hash to the next line. Otherwise an alternating dot point/numbered list is created, which is not consistent or aesthetic. When making edits with the basic editor please use the PREVIEW function to ensure the formatting is not broken. Ertl man (talk) 11:57, April 30, 2019 (UTC)